As we prepare for Phase II of our TAT-Vintage Ride, a little history to get the story started.

Last year we did the 2007-TAT Vintage Ride - OK, NM & CO.

We started with five vintage Yahama Enduros and alot of unknowns.
First, none of the riders had ever met. We only knew each other from a Yahama Vintage Forum.
Second, only a couple of us had ever done long trips on a Vintage bike. Third, would the 1970's era Yahama Enduros not to mention the Vintage Riders have the fortitude to make the journey.

We started in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in late May and headed West. What a friggen crew this turned out to be.

Day 1 was a tough day for sure. We lost the first 1973 RT3-360 to some unknown power issue with in the first 9 miles of leaving the shop. We lost one 1975 DT400B to the ever looming "Dial-a-Seeze towards the end of the day.

Towing the DT400B of Makosun the last 24 miles of the day into Blackwell, Ok.

Motoguy and Makosun working on the bikes for Day two

I went to bed to rest the bones with Makosun still working into the night to get ready for the next day. Amazing work in the parking lot of the motel.

Day two started with High Hopes, Motoguy felt he had his 360 ready to go, Makosun had installed a backup top end with some major adjustments. Dman, Jjress and myself had lubed, serviced and loaded for the days ride West.

8 miles North of Blackwell, Makosun's over froze up, we loaded his bike on the chase truck and unloaded the Honda XR650L back up bike to continue on. 28 miles out from the motel the second "Dial-a-Seeze" tooks its revenge and froze up the 1975 DT400B of Dman. Here we sit, less than 30 miles out and two bikes down. Motoguy is running rough but hanging on. Finally with all the hurdles time for meeting.

The effected riders had a meeting in the rain and decided that Makosun and Motoguy dicide to return to Blackwell and find a U-Haul and load up and head back to Washington State. One hell of a long drive for a days ride on the TAT. Dman would take operations of the XR650L and three of us would continue West.

The Meeting on the TAT

While we waited for all to rearrange and say good byes, we had time to think about what we were facing. Rattles were louder, bearings making noise, oil pumps injecting 2 stroke oil, minds and worries sat in and made for an exhauting wait.

Finally after a couple hours we three were ready to head West once again.

Now with our effort continuing, sad for the loss of our new friends we continued until we hit the Mile-o-Mud. 4 hours, I mile, and wore ass out.

Needless to say, long ass day, not many miles covered, drained, lost two buddies, and finally made 110 miles in 8 long tiring hours. TAT had kicked some ass.

The 2007-TAT Vintage ride turned out to be an experience to remember and cherish. The rest of the trip was wonderful, met many nice people, met a couple of Famous ADV Riders, Hayduke and LoneRider, and made some rocking chair memories to take with us for ever.

The three of use made our destination of Monticello, UT with many hurdles and memories with the promise to start where we ended in 2008 and head West.

Phase II - Our goal all along has been to do the entire TAT on these Vintage Yahama Enduros. For me the bikes that started it all. We all wish we could do the trip in one long effort, but as most of us all understand the daily grind of life has limited our group into breaking the TAT into Three adventures.

Marshall Pass Road, Coloado, 1975 Before it was known to be the TAT

My 1976 Yahama DT400C when I started the adventure.

The Building of the DT400C Mountain Bike

The Mountain Bike taking shape

Finally the Mountain Bike ready to go with the OEM Desert Tank.

Forward to May 2008

The 1976 Yahama DT400C Mountain Bike now ready for the 2008-TAT VInture Ride. New gear and serviced.

Best Xmas ever, a new bike lift. Thanks to the wife aka "Boss"

I have added two Koplin tanks for the Western Section - UT, NV and OR. Upon completion of the Ok, NM and CO section I did take the top end off to check the motor. All was good, so I only replaced the head gasket, changed the oil, two new fork seals and tires. The bike did very well for being 30 plus years old.

One note to remember, Jjress road his 1971 RT1-360 along side for the entire Central section. Then my Iron ass buddy, road his RT1 back to Flordia from UTAH. That my friends is something to admire or question, I still am not sure. He has also rode the darn bike from California to Flordia once as well. True adventure in my books.

We plan to leave where we left off. Starting May 10th, 2008 we will be departing from Monticello, UT and working our way to Port Orford, OR. With some luck with weather, old machines and old riders, we hope to have another fantastic ride and report to share. Hope you all will follow along as we tackle the Western Sections of the Trans America Trail and the Road Less Traveled.

One of the final stories of last years ride to that never got covered. As we all returned to our shops and started working on bikes.

Makosun did a complete overhaul on his motor.

Dman did a complete overhaud on his motor.

Motoguy, who we had heard say, I just put this new pipe on the bike several times. Returned home and started the trouble shooting on his bike. After several hours of labor, frustration, and all, decided to put the old pipe back on the bike. Damn thing runs great.

Further investigation, he pulls a dead pack rat from the NEW pipe. The rat had plugged his pipe and decided to go on the trip with him. Moral of that story.

If one is riding an old ass bike, dont change anything, dont wash it, dont talk bad to it, and damn sure dont bring the rat along for the ride.

Dman here, it was quite the deal to meet 6 guys you only knew from the internet. Everyone was/is way cool and made/make a pretty good group. We still are not sure about Ironbutt, but he is not a mass murderer we think anyway.

Here is the studly steed and the fat old fart on a recent shake down ride of the DT400B. It looks mostly like the other yellow beasts but mine has a new pacemaker.

Got real tired of batteries last year and my new Zumo only runs about 4 hrs on its internal battery. a lot of good that would be. these old enduros all had 6 volt systems. check this "charge-a-thon" every night

So I R&Ded a new CDI conversion, 160watts of 12volts and a programable curve advance unit. This ride will be the proving grounds for this system. I will take the complete 6volt deal with us as a spare, just in case it turns ugly like the dial a seize episode, but It should be just fine. The Manufacturer has 1000's of units on many different bikes with no problems.

Some may ask WHY? these guys are nuts.

We'll, ANY NOOB can do it on a new bike! so whats the challange?, and I would almost bet it has never been done before.

Vinnie is always hammering the rest of us to chip in and post our comments but he does it so well there is not usually much to say after he has had his turn. but I will try to add my buck-three-eighty when ever I think of something.

Yes I did a complete split the case overhaul. When you hole a piston it gets aluminum chunks EVERYWHERE so it was a total rehab. but fixed a couple of minor annoyances from the first time.

Also I would 100% second Vinnies opin on the Dial a jet. it is a great system, but you have to know what the hell you are doing on the tune job. Especially
on a 2 smoke. We just got them too lean. So this time I have about 750 miles on the rebuild already so I am fairly sure it will not have any issues. Running pretty much stock except for the ignition.

In case you all were wondering about all the fuel packs. When you see all the bikes they all have extra of some kind. These 2 smoke wonders have great power BUT really bad gas mileage like around 30 +/- so we needed bigger main tanks, yes even back then the factory put on too small of a gas tank. We also had to add another 2 ½ gals to get our range up to at least 160 miles. There are a few segments that are 150 +/- and that is if we don’t get lost or detoured. Just not many places through the desert to get fuel or even meet a truck.

I R&Ded a new CDI conversion, 160watts of 12volts and a programable curve advance unit. This ride will be the proving grounds for this system. I will take the complete 6volt deal with us as a spare, just in case it turns ugly like the dial a seize episode, but It should be just fine. The Manufacturer has 1000's of units on many different bikes with no problems.

Some may ask WHY? these guys are nuts.

We'll, ANY NOOB can do it on a new bike! so whats the challange?, and I would almost bet it has never been done before.

Vinnie is always hammering the rest of us to chip in and post our comments but he does it so well there is not usually much to say after he has had his turn. but I will try to add my buck-three-eighty when ever I think of something.

dman

Tell me more ? Where you get the system?
You say CDI . ? For 12 Volt then?

The company is called Power dynamo and they are in Germany. I am a distrubutor but have not tried to sell them yet. I wanted to run the TAT and be able to say I have tested them fully.

The basic unit is a new Rotor and stator, regulator, and CDI/coil combination. They also just made an advance unit that goes with that model that has several different progarmable curves. I am putting that on the bike right now.

They have it listed on the website as 100 watts but it is more like 160watts of 12VDC for the lighting system.

The CDI is a Magneto type on its own source coil and is independent of the charging system.

So far I have about 500 miles on it, starts and runs great. I think the lack of an advance makes the top end of the DT400 a bit lacking in power. so I am anxious to see what this new advance unit will do.

The system is not cheap mostly because of the strength of the Euro to the dollar. but I really wanted the 12 volts and not to have to hassel with having 3 spare used original CDI's around just to make sure your bike will work. Eventually they will all fail.

A good start on the story. Another source for info of that trip is at THIS LINK. If you go to the daily update page it will give you a play by play of the trip.

Vinnie neglected to mention that the parking lot top end job was done mostly by headlight illumination and with the help of Motoguy and Jgresh until the wee hours when we got ignition once again. A true team effort.

A couple of Southern Boys amazed at the parking lot repairs:

He also forgot to mention that this all occured on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. Hard to get much assistance!

After my bike had a top end BBQ the next morning, and Dman's piston got a picture window in the crown, we had a hard decision to make. Motoguy's bike was running like crapola and we feared it would be the next casualty (Ultimately the problem we discovered with his bike was the dried, roasted RAT carcass that was plugging up the exhaust - No Lie!

Since Vinnie and Dman had been the original planners of the first ride, Motoguy and I decided to defer and take the gentlemen's ride back to our vehicle waiting in Monticello. We talked the local Uhaul agent to step away from the TV and rent us a truck and off we went - ultimately ending up in Moab, UT.

A grand lighter in the wallet, and feeling pretty defeated, we did what any one of you would do in the same situation - Go to the Moab Brewery and order a couple of "Naughty Rootbeers" That lead to a decision to rent a couple of enduros in Moab and ride for a day. A small, but very satisfying concession. Video of that day is HERE.

The original bike I rode: 1975 DT400B not showing the rack it sported on the trip

After returning to the Northwest, the motor came apart an was once again a new top end, new clutch, new NOS ignition system, and numerous other improvements and repairs. In addition, a second DT400 was procured and will be riding along as a spare on the chase trailer.

I have also been installing a variety of camera mount spots on the bike, as we will be trying to film a great deal of this trip (again) with Helmet cams. We will definitely be updating this thread as we move along.

We had a fairly minimal technology last year, but have outdone ourselves this time around.

Vinnie will be carrying a SpOt personal locator unit and we will be beaming our location up regularly via satellite. You can be a virtual partner by signing up on our mailing list and you will receive those updates in your mailbox! You can sign up for the updates HERE. Please ignore the other pages of the site for a few days as it is really pretty limited so far.

We will also be carrying three separate GPS units with our routes programmed, as well as a couple of handhelds for backup. Maps to make the tracks came from Sam Correro with most all of the programming done my Vinnie and Dman. I am also carrying a Phototracker unit so all of our photographs will have the ability of being Geotagged, so you will eventually be able to see where the heck we took all those bad photos!

Dman and I will be running Helmet cameras, and will try to find the time to edit some of the footage down into a representative flic.

Last, but not least, we have a website for the trip, that is Not Quite Ripe for Prime Time, but will be ready for review of anyone who cares in the next week or so. I will post a website link when it goes "Live".